LAST FLIGHT TO KARACHI

We had completed Umrah. Karachi was the stop-over on our flight home. We decided to stay a few days in Karachi. 

 1.5.09 (Friday): Departed Jeddah 10pm on Pakistan Airline Flight PK732 and arrived Karachi Airport 8am. Because of heavy luggages took a taxi (driver: Abu Bakar) to the airport hotel costing 200 rupees. Hotel room B023. Later, the same rundown taxi drove us to the city for short tour. Taxi charge 400 rupees. 

2.5.2009 (Saturday): Hotel management chased us out of the room at 5am (how insensitive!)  saying that no permission been granted for overnight stay. We said that free overnight stay by courtesy of Pakistan Airline. We argued but  the staff insisted we should go. I forgot about bakshees. 

Abu Bakar drove us to the city to look for a hotel and found Parhaim  Hotel (3 star rating by our standard) right in the centre of Karachi. Room charge R3300/night. We had breakfast and lunch at the hotel. The food was 6/10 score.

I started to have fever and flu. 5pm we walked to the central bazaar-market, a short walk from the hotel. The bazaar was like a maze, crowded, dirty, smelly, dusty full of flies. Bought towels. Came across a man dangling Thompson submachine gun in a crowded footway. Strayed into part of the backlanes - horrible.

3.5.2009 (Sunday): Complimentary breakfast at hotel. Lunch at hotel. Took a taxi to the largest mall in Karachi not too far from the hotel. The shops lack the goods and there were not many customers. Parkson, Kajang can easily beat the mall. We visited a leather outlet in the neighbourhood of residential area. 

Taxi driver was one Hameed Khan, a proud Pathan. He said his brother went missing in Sabah 10 years ago. Call his number +903075749176 if I happen to come across his brother! Dinner at KBC Restaurant across the hotel. 

4.5.2009 (Monday): Breakfast at hotel. Asked Hameed to bring us to the nearest fruit market so that I could bring back some seeds. Hameed must have misunderstood. He drove us at high speed some 30km on the road to Hyderabad. We passed dumpsites along the way. 

The largely open air wholesale produce market was crowded, haphazard, dirty, smelly, men only affair. My wife was the only lady. I saw baskets or sacks of vegetables and fruits such as chiku, watermelon, oranges, loquat etc. I bought 1kg each of chiku and loquat. It was a very short over view and back to hotel for lunch. Hameed's take was R1300.

5.5.2009 (Tuesday): My flu and fever lingering. Had breakfast. Went to the central bazaar. I bought a leather sling bag (never use it till now, too big to be useful), a couple of leather sandals one pair of which I am using now (after being in the closet for years!). They are real leather.

Check out 6pm and kept our luggage at the hotel. Left hotel at 10.45pm to  airport for flight home by MAS. Hameed drove us.

The chiku seeds failed to germinate because the fruits bought were unripe. Several loquat (subtropical) plants are several feet tall but not fruiting yet in Cameron Highlands. They refresh my mind of our last flight to Karachi.

That was my second visit to Pakistan. The first to Faisalabad for 1 week in 1999, 10 years before Karachi. I enjoyed kind hospitality there.

Tourism in Pakistan is dead. With Imran Khan helming, hopefully things get better. 

(I took pictures of Karachi using digital camera but lost them).